“8th Dr. Verghese Kurien Foundation Day Lecture” to be delivered by
Dr. S. S. Meenakshisundaram
Topic “Second Level Institutions for inclusive and sustainable growth in Rural India”
on 20th November, 2014 at 10.30 am
Dr. S. S. Meenakshisundaram is the Vice Chairman of Mysore Rehabilitation and Development Agency (MYRADA), a voluntary organization in the field of building people’s institutions for development and a Visiting Professor at Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore; National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore and also The Gandhigram Rural University in Tamil Nadu. Dr. S. S. Meenakshisundaram is a Post Graduate in Mathematics from Loyola College, Madras and holds a Ph.D. in Development Economics from Jamia Milia Islamia National University, New Delhi. He joined the Karnataka cadre of the Indian Administrative Service in 1968. During his career in Karnataka, he had held a number of assignments including Collector and District Magistrate of Tumkur and Bangalore districts; Director of Sericulture and Chairman of the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation; Managing Director of the Karnataka Milk Federation; Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj department etc.
He was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom for one year. Besides several articles and papers on Governance, Panchayatiraj and Rural Development, he has also published a book on “Decentralization in Developing Countries” with special reference to Nigeria, China and India during 1994.
After working as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka and Joint Secretary to three Prime Ministers of India, he served as Adviser in the Planning Commission and Secretary in the Ministries of Rural Development as well as Disinvestment, Govt. of India. He was also the Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Board when Karnataka was under the President’s Rule.